Brian George Fischer: 1964 - 2007

President, co-founder of restoration firm

American Building Contractors Inc. executive was passionate about flying

July 03, 2007|By Graydon Megan, Special to the Tribune

Brian George Fischer was an entrepreneur known for the energy and enthusiasm he put into his business ventures and pursuits from playing the piano to piloting his airplane.

"He was totally an entrepreneur and successful at everything he's done," said Mark Fisher, a friend.

Mr. Fischer started a lawn-care service as a youngster, Fisher said. With his first earnings, he bought another lawn mower and hired a helper to expand the business.

FOR THE RECORD - This corrected obituary replaces an erroneous obituary published June 29, 2007. The original story has been removed from the archives.

Mr. Fischer, 43, a former Arlington Heights resident, died Friday, June 22, when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza he was flying crashed near Stanton, Minn. Family members said he was flying alone when the plane went down in bad weather.

At the time of his death, Mr. Fischer was president of American Building Contractors Inc., based in Burnsville, Minn. He was a co-founder of the company, which provides insurance restoration services to residential and commercial customers who suffer damage from hailstorms, hurricanes and other disasters.

Mr. Fischer grew up in Arlington Heights and was a 1982 graduate of Hersey High School. He received associate degrees in horticulture and business from Harper College in Palatine, family members said. He also worked as a stockbroker and in real estate and insurance sales, while attending Harper.

"He was interested in many areas, but primarily business," said his sister Debra Schubitz.

In the late 1980s, Mr. Fischer and a partner started a business that sold software for home-inspection services, his sister said. The business eventually began selling franchises for home inspection services, said Paul Woodward, a co-founder and vice president of American Building Contractors.

In 1997, Mr. Fischer met his wife, Therese Richier, during a remodeling project at a house he owned in Prospect Heights. He was looking for counter material, and she owned a marble and granite company. They married in 1997 and settled in the newly remodeled house.

"He did buy the marble and granite [from her]," Schubitz said.

In 1998, Mr. Fischer helped start American Building Contractors.

"There are four of us who own the company, and we all had worked together in other places," Woodward said. He said the impetus to form the company and base it in Minnesota came after a major hailstorm in the Minneapolis area in 1998.

"We do exterior restoration after hurricanes and hailstorms," Woodward said.

The company has nine offices across the U.S. and is licensed in 43 states, according to Woodward. He said Mr. Fischer was responsible for getting the company licensed in most of the states in which it does business.

"He's very good at anything that requires a test," Woodward said.

In 2002, Mr. Fischer and his family moved to Prior Lake, Minn., after he and his partners decided that they should all work out of the company's Minnesota office.

Flying was a lifelong interest for Mr. Fischer, according to his sister, who said her brother got his private pilot's license about 10 years ago and was in the process of building an ultralight airplane.

His interests also included classical music and sky diving, said Fisher, his friend. Mr. Fischer was an accomplished musician who played several instruments, including bass and piano, Fisher said. He also was a gardener and a gourmet cook known for his pizzas and for cocktails that Fisher called "the best mojitos."

Fisher accompanied Mr. Fischer on his first airplane trip after he got his private pilot's license. The two flew to Kitty Hawk, N.C., and Fisher recalled how thrilled his friend was to be flying over what he called the birthplace of aviation.

"He had so much fun and so much passion about life," Fisher said.

Besides his sister, survivors include his wife; two sons, Joseph and John; his mother, Jo; and another sister, Dona Amore.